Romantic books have been all the rage lately, dominating The New York Times bestsellers list. Given that, Wyoming author C.J. Box said he wouldn’t have been too surprised if his latest Joe Pickett novel “Battle Mountain” didn’t make the list.
In the end, he was more than just surprised, he was elated.
Not only did his novel make The New York Times bestseller list, but it has debuted in the No. 1 spot.
The novel beat out three Rebecca Yarros “romantasy” novels, which refers to a blend of fantasy and romance, as well as Elle Kennedy’s “The Charlie Method,” another in a series about a college senior who has complicated relationships with a couple of hockey players.
This is not Box’s first time with a Joe Pickett novel at No. 1. In fact, it is the fifth. His four others were “Off the Grid,” “The Disappeared,” “Storm Watch,” and “Long Range.”
But, given the outsized interest of late in romance novels, landing at the top right now feels like something of an achievement, he said. And it’s one that comes at a particularly opportune time. Box has been hearing interest of late in another television season for Joe Pickett.
“I don’t have anything to announce at this time,” Box said. “I wish I did. But there is interest.”
Mr. Ordinary Keeps Picking Up New Fans
Landing a new Joe Pickett book at the No. 1 spot on The New York Times bestseller list certainly can’t hurt the interest in reviving Joe Pickett on television, featuring a most unusual detective.
Pickett is not the typical, hard-boiled detective who most people think of when they pick up a mystery novel. There is no dark and shady past lying in wait to trip Pickett up. He’s quite capable of doing his own tripping up.
Box describes the Wyoming game warden as average height, average weight and not especially good-looking.
He is hard-working and has high integrity — but he famously can’t shoot his sidearm, a .40-caliber Glock, well enough to hit the side of a barn. He has also destroyed so many pickups during the series that there can’t logically be too many of them left in the entire Cowboy State.
Pickett is so ordinary, in fact, that Box said he had no idea his first book, “Open Season,” was a series at all. He thought he had written a one-off, standalone novel.
It was only when his debut Joe Pickett novel made The New York Times list of “notable books” that year, that it was clear both to himself and to his publishers that this was a lot more than a one-off.
Now 27 — and soon to be 28 — novels later, Box has watched his series about an unassuming game warden just continue to pick up momentum.
“Each book has outsold the previous ones,” he said. “That means new readers coming in with each book, and that just keeps adding to the numbers.”
On his most recent book tour, Box signed more books than he ever has in one setting.
“There were 600 people in Indianapolis and 550 in Denver,” Box said. “And those are just really big numbers for a book event. I’ve never signed so many books or seen so many people at a book event.”
Romanowski Takes The Spotlight
Box’s latest work is more of a Nate Romanowski book, he has told Cowboy State Daily.
In the book, Romanowski is set on vengeance against the man who killed his wife in the previous book, “Three-Inch Teeth.”
He has discovered the object of that vengeance is camping on Battle Mountain, which is a real place in Wyoming in the Little Snake River Valley. Battle Mountain takes its name from the Thermopylae-like battle between legendary mountain man Jim Baker and a dozen other trappers against several hundred angry Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors.
Baker, 22 at the time, took charge of the battle, saving all but one man’s life.
Box married that little tidbit of real-world Wyoming history with a military gathering of a different sort that he encountered in the area, by a group called the Conquistadors.
“They have an annual conclave gathering that happens every year that very few people know about,” Box said. “And there are so many jets at this thing that they park little jets underneath the wings of big jets.”
Box, who has been to the event once, said there are so many members of the U.S. military-industrial complex at the gathering, it would be disastrous if anything happened while they’re in town.
“One bomb could wipe out the U.S. military-industrial complex,” he said.
People Relate To Pickett
Box believes the everyman nature of Pickett is his real charm. People can see themselves in a guy who makes mistakes but works hard and loves his family, who is trying to get it right, even when he gets it wrong.
Box isn’t afraid to let his hero live a little between squirming out of terrifying predicaments and solving enthralling mysteries.
And Box really does his homework. He goes on ride-alongs, climbs wind towers and goes all out to get the nitty-gritty details as realistic as possible.
“When I started out, I wasn’t basing Joe Picket on anybody in particular,” Box said. “I just thought he was a typical Western kind of type. Someone who does their job, takes it seriously, loves their family, doesn’t make a lot of money, works really hard, has a moral compass.”
Readers have told Box they love both the wild Wyoming setting and Pickett’s evolution over time.
Unlike a lot of famous detective series, this isn’t a static world. Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, for example, have their quirks, but never really change that much from one mystery to the next.
“Wyoming is a pretty unique setting for a lot of readers, who don’t know about the West and don’t know the state,” Box said. “And Joe Pickett’s not a hard case. He doesn’t beat up people, he doesn’t win every gun fight.
“He’s just a very normal guy, and I think people really enjoy reading about his family. They’ve sort of watched the family grow up and mature and move out and take on different things.”
In doing that, Box has created depth and a storyline that can’t help but keep pulling in new readers from one book to the next.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
